I’ve been relatively loose with various aspects of worldbuilding in this future. I didn’t want to set too much in stone so that readers – especially ones imagining a better solarpunk future – could project various ideas onto it that they think would be good fits.

Nevertheless, I did want to contribute some concrete ideas. One of those is the concept of Health and Safety teams. They are indeed NOT cops. They aren’t armed with any kind of lethal or even potentially lethal arms. They are likely elected or in some ways selected BY the communities they serve specifically to focus on providing guidance and aid during emergencies, or general structure and safety checks during calm periods. These are positions that require RIGOROUS education and training. Many groups have a specifically-trained Health and Safety Team on-staff for their own needs; Abigail and her two allies are actually part of Foundation B’s. Their normal duties are just to monitor the functions of the cave, as well as checking for potential hazards. It’s also technically a part of their duties to handle/escort out intruders, but that usually just comes up in the form of people who accidentally go to the wrong floor of the elevator into FB.

So TL;DR – Health and Safety teams aren’t cops. Depending on who they’re working with, they’re closer to medics, maintenance teams, and OSHA rolled into one. Some DO specialize in handling violent situations, but they’re not armed with anything even potentially lethal and going for anything aggressive before exhausting EVERY de-escalation technique in the book is grounds for immediate termination and/or criminal investigation.